TWI647653B - Patient referral system and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a patient referral system and a method thereof, wherein a pairing application is applied Searching for at least one preferred hospital that meets a patient's medical care condition for patient referral. According to the medical care condition, the matching application calculates a sum of a resource score and a historical score for a plurality of hospitals by using a plurality of hospital data stored in a database, and determines the hospitals according to the sum of the sums. The order of the rankings in the referral list.

Description

Patient referral system and method thereof

The invention belongs to the technical field of information processing platform and application program, and particularly relates to a patient referral system and a method thereof.

The traditional methods of handling patient referrals in major hospitals rely on manual matching. It is necessary to contact the hospitals that may be transferred to each other to confirm whether there are enough beds, medical equipment and human resources to receive patients in the immediate state of these hospitals. Limited manpower limited to contact can only be made in one turn, and there are uncertainties in the contact of the hospital that cannot be contacted immediately. The process of confirmation often takes a long time.

In view of this, there is an urgent need to improve the inefficiency and labor expenditure of traditional arrangements for referral.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a patient referral system and method thereof for solving the problem in the prior art that it is necessary to manually use a manual confirmation process to arrange a referral hospital for a patient.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a patient referral system and method thereof for calculating a sum of a resource score and a historical score for a plurality of hospitals by applying a pairing application to search for a medical care condition that meets a patient's condition. At least one preferred hospital is for patient referrals to improve the efficiency of the referral process.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a patient referral system is provided comprising a database and at least one server. The database stores a plurality of hospital materials, and the hospital data is divided into a plurality of groups according to the location areas of the corresponding hospitals. The server is coupled to the database, and the server is configured. To perform a matching application to search for at least one preferred hospital that meets a patient's medical care condition for referral to the patient. Based on the medical care conditions, the matching application calculates the sum of a resource score and a historical score for a plurality of hospitals by using the hospital data, and determines the order of the hospitals in the search results according to the sum of the sums.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a patient referral method is provided for use in a server coupled to a database, comprising the steps of: executing a pairing application to store at least one hospital data in a database and Searching for at least one preferred hospital that meets a patient's medical care condition for patient referral. In the database, the hospital data is divided into a plurality of groups according to the location area of the hospital corresponding to the other at least one hospital data. Based on the medical care conditions, the matching application calculates the sum of a resource score and a historical score for a plurality of hospitals by using the hospital data, and determines the order of the hospitals in the search results according to the sum of the sums.

1‧‧‧ patient referral system

2‧‧‧Communication links

11‧‧‧Database

13‧‧‧Server

14‧‧‧Client device

15‧‧‧Warning device

31‧‧‧ Resource Array

32‧‧‧Resource Weight Array

33‧‧‧Resource Points

41‧‧‧Historical array

42‧‧‧Historical weight array

43‧‧‧ Historical Points

131‧‧‧ processor

411, 413‧‧‧ array

A, B, C, D‧‧ Hospital

I, II‧‧‧ groups

The accompanying drawings of the present specification are as follows: Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of the structure of a patient referral system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 shows an example of a hospital and its groups in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

3 shows an example of resource integration in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

4 shows an example of historical scores in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 5 shows an example of computing one of the arrays of the historical array shown in Figure 4.

Figure 6 shows an example of calculating the sum of resource points and historical points.

The embodiments of the present invention are described below by way of specific examples, and those skilled in the art can readily understand other advantages and effects of the present invention from the disclosure of the present disclosure. The present invention may be embodied or applied in various other specific embodiments, and various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Please refer to FIG. 1 , which shows a system architecture diagram of a patient referral system 1 according to an embodiment of the invention. The patient referral system 1 includes a database 11 and a plurality of servers 13 coupled to the database 11 via a communication link 2. The communication link 2 can implement a communication link wireless network by any combination of any number of any form of wired or wireless communication medium. The communication medium is exemplified by a twisted pair wire, a coaxial cable, an optical fiber, an infrared, a microwave, a satellite, etc., and the communication link 2 is borrowed here. The communication medium links the Internet as an example. The database 11 does not define its type and location, and may be a centralized database, a decentralized database, an entity decentralized database, etc., and the database 11 can selectively maintain its data integrity in various encryption or preservation manners. For example, set the firewall before, encrypt with the key, and so on. Please note that this embodiment is based on four hospitals A, B, C, and D. Each hospital A, B, C, and D is equipped with a server 13, a client device 14, and a warning device 15. The server 13 can be any server of any type, and the client device 14 can be a personal computer, a panel, a personal digital assistant or a workstation, and the alert device 15 is a display, a buzzer, A warning light or other device having a warning function, and in other embodiments, is not limited thereto, and other devices may be additionally added.

Each server 13 includes a processor 131 configured to execute a pairing application and optionally execute a reminder application as needed. The matching application can first store the hospital data of the hospitals A, B, C, and D in the database 11, and can update the status according to the demand irregularly or periodically to reflect the current situation. The hospital data is divided into multiple groups according to the location areas of the corresponding hospitals A, B, C, and D. For example, hospitals A and C are divided into group I, and hospitals B and D are divided into group II. Please refer to the example shown in Figure 2. Preferably, the hospital data is divided into groups I and II, such as the same group I, in such a manner that the hospitals A, B/C, and D corresponding to the hospital materials in the same group I/II are close to each other. The hospitals A, B/C, and D corresponding to the hospital data in /II are in the same administrative area or the same medical network area. In other embodiments, the number of hospitals The quantity and group settings are not limited to this. For example, the number of hospitals may be greater than four, and the hospital corresponding to the hospital data in the same group may be in the same first aid responsibility zone or other similar partition concept.

In this embodiment, each hospital data includes a plurality of resource information related to the hospital's own equipment or human resources and at least one historical information related to the hospital's past referral experience. For example, the resource information may include information on the number of empty beds, information on hospital equipment, information on the doctor's watch and/or hospital grade, etc. The number of beds can be subdivided into the number of beds, the number of intensive care units, the number of open rooms, and the like. The hospital equipment information can be subdivided into the quantity, model, etc. of various medical equipments or can be an overall score based on the completeness of the equipment. The doctor's duty sheet information can be subdivided into various doctors' duty sheets, physician expertise, etc. or can be a basis. The overall score of the number of physicians on duty, the hospital grade can be set according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare or other agencies. For example, historical information may include whether the patient's condition is stable at each referral in the past, the average patient status score, the time each referral is completed, the average time to complete the referral, and/or the credibility score, etc. The status before the referral reflects the patient's condition at each referral. The average patient status score can be the average score of the patient's state stability at each referral, such as 1 point for each patient at the time of referral, Unstable scores of 2 points, the credibility score can be related to a hospital's hospital grade score and number of transfer/entry routes and number of cross-region transfer/entry routes. Specifically, the credibility score P(H) can be calculated here by the following formula: P(H)=[Σ d(x)×I(N)+α×I(N')+d(H)×O (N)+α×O(N')]/[I(N)+O(N)+I(N')+O(N')]+ρ; where H represents a corresponding hospital data Hospital, representative of another hospital that contributes a way out, d represents a hospital level of the hospital, medical center is 3, regional hospital is 2, regional hospital is 1, and I(N) represents the number of access routes of the hospital. , I(N') represents the number of pathways transferred by the hospital, O(N) represents the number of pathways for the hospital, and O(N') represents the number of pathways for a cross-region of the hospital, α For a span constant, ρ is a constant. In other embodiments, the hospital information may include other information, such as hosting contact information of the referral, which may be increased according to actual needs. In this embodiment, hospital data of hospitals A, B, C, and D are collectively stored in the database 11, but other The application is not limited to this. Hospital data of all hospitals can also be backed up in other databases or servers.

When a patient is to be referred to another hospital, for example, from hospital A to another hospital, the contractor can operate the client device 14 of the hospital A to drive the processor 131 in the server 13 to execute the pairing application to search for compliance. At least one preferred hospital of the patient's medical care condition is referred to the patient for referral. The matching application can provide a search interface for inputting search conditions. For example, the medical care conditions required by the patient are specific medical care equipment, instruments, facilities, bed grades, specialists, stable patient status, etc., and can be based on actual needs. Increase or decrease the number of items filled in. The matching application can control the contents of the medical care condition corresponding to the medical care condition of the database 11 through the server 13 to retrieve the hospital data, and obtain a referral list to list the hospitals for referral, which can be performed according to the order of the hospitals. Referral. Estimated traffic information is a quantifiable value representing the transit time between the patient's location and each hospital's A/B/C/D. This example shows the distance between the patient's location and each hospital's A/B/C/D. The reciprocal of the traffic time predicted by the traffic conditions. For example, the pairing application can transmit the specific medical care condition to the database 11 so that the database 11 generates two weight arrays according to the setting conditions of the medical care conditions, one of which is a resource weight array for each hospital A, The resource information of the hospital data of B, C, and D sets an empty bed score, a score of a doctor on duty, and a hospital equipment score and estimates the traffic information weight to calculate a resource score, and the other is a historical weight array for each hospital A, The hospital data of B, C, and D set the average score of the patient status, the average time information of the completed referral and the weight of a credibility score to calculate a historical score, and calculate the sum of the resource points and the historical points, and arrange accordingly. The order of each hospital A, B, C, and D in the referral list is provided as a priority for referral. However, the pairing application may first generate the resource weight array and the historical weight array according to the specific medical care condition, and directly transmit the two weight array to the database 11 to calculate resource points and historical points, and perform weight calculation. Limited to the structure of the array, it can also be information about other structures.

For example, the number of devices in the resource weight array may be different for the number of devices that need to be used for the specific patient or the level of the physician's care level may be different. For example, refer to the example of FIG. 3, corresponding to each hospital A, B. The resource information of the hospital data of C, D, and the estimated traffic information generate a resource array 31 and set the values of 5, 4, 2, 0.5, etc. in the resource weight array 32 according to the degree of need, and calculate according to the scores of the respective items. Out of resource points 33, hospital A obtained the highest historical score in this example.

For example, in the historical weight array, values of different sizes may be set for the specific patient demand. As shown in FIG. 4, the historical information of the hospital data corresponding to each hospital A, B, C, and D includes an average score of the patient status, The history array 41 of referral average time information and credibility scores is completed and the historical scores 43 are calculated by accumulating the scores in the historical weight array 42 according to the degree of need. For an example of calculating the average score of the patient's condition, reference may be made to the array 411 of FIG. 5. If the state of the patient referred to in the past is stabilized to 1 point, the score is unstable to 2 points, and the total score is counted and averaged to calculate the average state score. The calculation of the completed referral average time information may be the reciprocal of the average time required for each referral completion. For an example, please refer to the historical array 41 of FIG. An example of a confidence score can be calculated as shown in array 413 of FIG. 5, which is an example of the number and route of hospital grades, groupings, and past referrals in accordance with FIG. The values of the array 413 are substituted into the foregoing formula to calculate the reliability score P(H) of each hospital A, B, C, D: P(A)=[d(C)×1+α×1+d(A) )×1]/3+ρ=[2×1+3×1+0.5×1]/3+2=3.833

P(B)=[d(D)×1+d(B)×2+α×1]/4+ρ=[1×1+3×2+0.5×1]/4+2=3.875

P(C)=[d(A)×1+d(C)×1+α×1]/3+ρ=[3×1+2×1+0.5×1]/3+2=3.833

P(D)=[d(B)×2+α×1+d(D)×1]/4+ρ=[3×2+0.5×1+1×1]/4+2=3.875

α is 0.5 in this example, and ρ is 2 in this example.

Next, as shown in FIG. 6, the sum of the resource points and the historical points is calculated, and the order of the respective hospitals A, B, C, and D is arranged accordingly, and the priority order as the referral is provided. Therefore, through the referral system and method, the patient's symptoms can be intelligently adapted to the conditions of the doctors on duty, the number of empty beds in the hospital, the past referral history of the patients, and the distance traveled by the referral hospital. According to the above several conditions, the proportion of decision-making is adjusted. Finally, the total score is used to reflect the degree of adaptation of each hospital. Based on this, the order of the hospitals suitable for receiving referral patients in the referral list is adjusted from high to low.

In this embodiment, the reminder application can determine the frequency of issuing a warning signal to the hospital according to the urgency of the patient and issue a warning signal to the hospital. For example, the length of the timer is set according to the degree of stability of the corresponding patient in the medical care condition and/or the degree of adaptation of each hospital, such as: setting 30 seconds when the patient is unstable, setting 60 seconds when the patient is stable, and integrating resources, Hospitals whose historical scores or their sums are higher than a depreciation will reduce the time of their timers. For example, the timer with a resource score greater than 10 points is reduced by 5 seconds, and the resource score is between 10 and 5 minutes. The timer that reduces 3 seconds and the resource score is less than 5 points is reduced by 1 second. The length of the timer time setting can be set according to actual requirements, and there is no need to limit it.

It can be seen from the above that the present invention can solve the problem that the traditional arrangement referral needs to use the manual to confirm the process to arrange the referral for the patient, and calculates a resource score and a history for a plurality of hospitals by applying a pairing application program. A sum of points to search for at least one preferred hospital that meets a patient's medical care condition for patient referral, improving the efficiency of the referral process.

The above-described embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles of the invention and its effects, and are not intended to limit the invention. Modifications or variations of the above-described embodiments may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, all equivalent modifications or changes made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention will be covered by the appended claims.

Claims (14)

A patient referral system includes: a database for storing a plurality of hospital data, wherein the hospital data is divided into a plurality of groups according to a location area of the corresponding hospital; and at least one server coupled to the database And the server is configured to execute a matching application to search for at least one preferred hospital that meets a medical care condition of a patient for referral to the patient, wherein the pairing application utilizes the medical care conditions according to the medical care condition The hospital data calculates a sum of a resource score and a historical score for a plurality of hospitals, and ranks the order of the hospitals in a referral list according to the sum of the sums, and the historical scores are for the hospitals. The corresponding average patient status score, the average time of completion referral information, and the cumulative result of a credibility score after weighting. According to the patient referral system of claim 1, wherein the resource points are an empty bed score of the hospital, a hospital equipment score, and a doctor on duty, and the patient is referred to the hospitals respectively. The reciprocal of the opening time is the result of the weighting. According to the patient referral system described in claim 1, wherein the average patient status score is the average score of the patient's state stability level at each referral, and the average time of the completed referral is each time The reciprocal of the average time taken to complete the diagnosis. According to the patient referral system described in claim 1, wherein the reliability score and the hospital data correspond to a hospital's hospital grade score and number of transfer/entry routes and cross-region transfer/entry routes Related. According to the patient referral system described in claim 1, wherein the credibility score P(H) is calculated by the following formula: P(H) = [Σd(x) × I(N) + α × I(N')+d(H)×O(N)+α×O(N')]/[I(N)+O(N)+I(N')+O(N')]+ρ Among them, H represents a hospital corresponding to the hospital data, x represents another hospital that contributes a transfer route, d represents a hospital grade of the hospital, and I(N) represents the number of access routes of the hospital, I ( N') represents the number of pathways transferred by the hospital. O(N) represents the number of pathways for the hospital, and O(N') represents the number of pathways for a cross-region of the hospital. The zone constant, ρ is a constant. The patient referral system according to claim 1, wherein in the database, the hospital materials are in a manner that the hospitals corresponding to the hospital materials in the same group are close to each other. It is divided into these groups. The patient referral system of claim 1, wherein the server is configured to execute a reminder application to determine a frequency of alerting the hospitals based on the urgency of the patient and The hospital issued the warning signal. A patient referral method for use in a server coupled to a database, comprising the steps of: executing a pairing application to: store at least one hospital data in a database in which the hospital data The location area of the hospital corresponding to the other at least one hospital data is divided into a plurality of groups, and at least one preferred hospital that meets a medical care condition of a patient is searched for the patient to be referred to, wherein the pairing application According to the medical care condition, the hospital data is used to calculate a sum of a resource score and a historical score for a plurality of hospitals, and according to the sum of the sums Low, arranging the order of the hospitals in a referral list, and the pairing application is weighted according to the average score of one referral result corresponding to the hospitals, the reciprocal of the average time of completion of the referral, and a credibility score. The accumulated results are used to calculate the historical points. According to the patient referral method described in claim 8 of the patent application, the method further includes the following steps: the pairing application is based on an empty bed score corresponding to the hospitals, a hospital equipment score, and a doctor on duty, and the patient is separately referred The resource points are calculated by the results of the countdown to the countdown of the opening hours of the hospitals. According to the patient referral method of claim 8, wherein in the pairing application, the average score of the score obtained according to the stability of the patient state is completed as the average score of the referral result per referral, and The reciprocal of the average time required for each referral completion is the reciprocal of the average time to complete the referral. According to the patient referral method of claim 8, wherein in the pairing application, the credibility score and the number of hospitals in the hospitals and the number of transfer/entry routes and cross-regional transfer / number of ways to enter. The patient referral method according to claim 8, wherein in the pairing application, the credibility score P(H) is calculated by the following formula: P(H)=[Σd(x)× I(N)+α×I(N')+d(H)×O(N)+α×O(N')]/[I(N)+O(N)+I(N')+O (N')] + ρ; where H represents a hospital in the hospital, x represents another hospital contributing a transfer route, d represents a hospital grade of the particular hospital, and I(N) represents the specific hospital The number of pathways, I(N') represents the number of pathways in a particular hospital, and O(N) represents the number of pathways for that particular hospital, O(N') Represents the number of a trans-regional pathways for that particular hospital, where α is a span constant and ρ is a constant. According to the patient referral method of claim 8, wherein in the database, the hospital materials are similar to each other in the hospitals corresponding to the hospital materials in the same group. It is divided into these groups. According to the patient referral method described in claim 8 of the patent application, the method further includes the following steps: executing a reminder application to determine the frequency of issuing a warning signal to the hospitals according to the urgency of the patient and issuing the warning to the hospitals Signal.